Scientists Question Missile Defence Effectiveness - What a Surprise

[Brian R.]

If Bush starts talking about an "immediate" or "imminent" threat or something to that effect, I will start to get worried.

[cjolley]

Originally posted by Brian R.
If Bush starts talking about an "immediate" or "imminent" threat or something to that effect, I will start to get worried.

I would have, but not any more.
I'd need more proof than his word.....
chuck

[Brian R.]

I meant worried about his credibility and the resulting actions.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Gurm

The USA has plenty of money.

Then why don't we have a decent public school system? Why are 1 in 5 children lacking appropriate medical coverage? Why are people living in shitty public housing?

[GT98]

Originally posted by Wombat
Then why don't we have a decent public school system? Why are 1 in 5 children lacking appropriate medical coverage? Why are people living in shitty public housing?

Because it doesnt make much sense to dump money into programs that are ****ed already. Its stupid how public education money is spent...in Camden and other lovely locals in NJ they get extra money due to the large amounts of minorties that go there and they have low test scores for a vartily of reasons. What do they spend the money on? an A/V system that pipes video into classrooms....I was told this by the A/V rep whos from Wisconsion and she was in shock...she was telling us that the schools there aren't Schools...more like displanary barracks with the teachers shouting at the students and what not.

I've also read that to have a nation wide public heath care system it would cost something like 1 trillion dollars a month or a year to fund it....thats some serious cash!

What needs to happen is to fix the current problems before they go blowing more cash and dont get any results out of it.

US goverment Motto: "If its not broke, Fix it till it is"

[cjolley]

Originally posted by GT98
...What needs to happen is to fix the current problems before they go blowing more cash and dont get any results out of it....

Bingo! Exactly my feelings about missle defense.
chuck

[Gurm]

Well, I confess that the number of countries that could lob a missile at us right now is... limited.

The money WOULD be better spent on "homeland security", although we know what a joke that's been so far...

Gurm_

[cjolley]

And I will confess that basic research into particle beam and/or photon weapon tech, that could be used for this sort of thing eventually, is a good idea.

chuck

[Brian R.]

The best investment for our tax dollars is into education. The increased intellegence of our children will solve many of the problems we will pay much more for in the future without this spending.

[cjolley]

See?
They could do basic research at universities on particle beams that might someday help defend us from a missile attack by some as yet unknown enemy.
Then we'd all be happy!

chuck

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by Wombat
Then why don't we have a decent public school system? Why are 1 in 5 children lacking appropriate medical coverage? Why are people living in shitty public housing?

Education:

Primary education is what's in a mess in this country and not because of lack of funds but because of the behavior of the education establishment.

In this sacred cow environment we have what my wife (a teacher) calls "reading programs de' jour"; meaning that instead of finding reading programs for each level that consistantly work and sticking to them schools purchase reading programs that are marketed like breakfast cereal and change them very frequently.

Most of these programs do not work better than the old-school methods at all, and in many cases introduce such dubious techniques as "invented spelling", which in my wifes district meant no spelling classes until middle school...but the problem was that onbody in the primary schools or administration told the middle schools this would be the case.

Result: confusion when the kids hit middle schools since these schools never know what they're going to get. As a result large numbers of middle school kids end up in remedial reading. Because of their low reading levels they end up behind in other subjects and the tsunami rolls on from there.

Who's at the core of this? The people who really run our educational system: the NEA, who puts pressure on their Democrat and Republican cronies to stop legislation that would otherwise curtail their control over state school boards and bring about something they can't even stand the thought of: teacher accountability and testing.

A large percentage of teachers are in favor of this as a means to increase professionalism, but the leadership will never voluntarily accept it.

Medical:

Many of those 1 in 5 are elegible for programs that already exist but either their parents, guardians or crappy social services employees don't take the measures to get them enrolled. Then there are the reporting problems that cause the stats to be overstated.

Our family is a perfect example of this. Because of my disability Erik is elegible to get benefits he is not enrolled in because my wife has health insurance through her employment. Even so he's still counted as one of those 1 in 5 "without coverage". Our situation isn't unusual at all.

"Shitty public housing":

This is very often "shitty" because of the people living there, not because of the housing itself. Back in the old days I can't tell you how many of the welfare buildings I've seen open pristeen and actually very nice but end up looking like London after the blitz within a year. This because putting people of low means and self-expectation together in overcrowded housing often ends up with a bad result because what negativism they have is self-reinforced.

This wasn't helped by the fact that for poor mothers to get benefits they had to be either unmarried or divorced, and unfortunately many families divorced just so the kids could get benefits.

These rules were set up when the Democrats were in total control of Congress for 40 straight years, which IMO belies the "total support for poor families" they claim in their platform documents in every Presidential election

Of course it's my opinion that the Democrats set this horrendous system up intentionally to create an angry underclass that they could exploit electorally. It certainly didn't make any other kind of sense.

Here in the Detroit area the reality that this system was fatally flawed was finally recognized by both the Democrats and Republicans at the State and Local levels. Combined with reforms brought on by a Republican Congress in the mid 90's (and kudos to Clinton for signing the bills, albeit under duress) the result was that most of the large public housing units were torn down; replaced by a program that places low income people in both normal apartments and rental homes across the region using vouchers. It's worked out so far, but still has a ways to go before all the old units are gone.

Too bad the Dems and NEA won't let the schools work the same way because many of them won't get fixed until they're replaced by something better

Dr. Mordrid

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by cjolley
And I will confess that basic research into particle beam and/or photon weapon tech, that could be used for this sort of thing eventually, is a good idea.

chuck

The basic research has already been done. Pulsed solid state lasers, microwave weaponry and high energy chemical lasers are on the way with many of them due for deployment within just a few years. The upcoming generation of Supercarriers have been modified to generate more excess power precisely to power such weaponry and the first should be leaving the dry docks within a few years.

Dr. Mordrid

[Wulfman]

if they have problems stuffing these things into 747s, then maybe they should do some additional research.

mfg
wulfman

[cjolley]

Things must be different in other states.
I was in the NEA here in Oklahoma when I was a teacher and it was about as weak as it could be and still be called a union.
We didn't even get health insurance!

As for controling the class room, the only attempted control that went on were the administrators who didn't want me teaching Evil-ution!
(They didn't succeed)

And I put up with that for $11,600 / year whille the "Administrators" of this 200 student school were making 3-4 times that much.
chuck

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by Wulfman
if they have problems stuffing these things into 747s, then maybe they should do some additional research.

mfg
wulfman

The solid state pulsed lasers are expected to fit in the back of a HumVee, complete with their generator. They have both high power and a rapid firing rate.

Anticipated uses: theater missile defence, anti-artillery and short range tactical.

Dr. Mordrid